Art Toombs Ministries 

Online Bible Commentary

To God be the Glory! 
Daniel 2:24 Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation." 25 Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him, "I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation." 26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?" 27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. 28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: 29 As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. 30 But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. 31 "You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.(NKJV)

 

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream that he could not remember. This dream troubled his soul greatly. The king sought out the wise men of the land to tell him his dream and its interpretation, but they could not. In a rage, the king then ordered the wise men and the royal officials, which included Daniel and his friends, to be killed. Daniel, a teenager, counseled with his friends and they all prayed for the secret of the dream. The Lord answered their prayers. 

In a vision the Lord gave Daniel the dream and Daniel now is going before the king to explain the dream (vv. 24-25). The king asked Daniel, who had been given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, if he could explain the dream and Daniel answered that he could (vv. 26-27). 

Daniel explained that the “God in heaven who reveals secrets” had given the king a dream of what will happen in the “latter days”, the end times (v. 28a). Daniel explains that the king not only had a dream, but he also had “visions” (v. 28b). Visions are different from dreams. Visions come to us when we are awake or slumbering, that time when we are falling asleep or waking up. 

Daniel explains that the king had been thinking about the future and that God had revealed that to him in the dream and visions (v. 29). Daniel does not accept credit for the secret of the dream but instead says that it was given to him “for our sakes”, to save the lives of him and his friends, and also so that the king would know what was troubling his soul (v. 30). 

Daniel then launches into telling the king his dream. Daniel explained that “this great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome” (v. 31). The “image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay (vv. 32-33).

Then, in the dream, a stone, not cut from human hands, struck the feet of the great image, breaking them in pieces (v. 34). Next, the rest of the image’s body was “crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found” (v. 35a). This seems to indicate that when the feet were broken the image fell and was pulverized into dust that blew away. The stone then “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (v. 35b). So, this was the king’s dream. Next time we will begin at Daniel 2:36 and look at the interpretation of this dream. 

Daniel was careful to give God the credit for explaining the dream. He gave God the glory when he easily could have impressed the king by claiming the glory for himself. But Daniel knew better. 

We also should know better. As Christians, we are nothing without God. Without God, the Holy Spirit, living in us and guiding our words and actions we are at the mercy of our human spirit, our human nature. And nothing good comes from our human nature. Because of this, we should always deflect praise away from ourselves and to God. He is the one responsible for any good in us. To God be the glory!